The Milwaukee Brewers responded to a beat-down at the hands of the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday night by delivering one of their own on Saturday afternoon.

Matt Garza delivered a much-needed quality start, and the offense came alive for five runs over the final two innings en route to a 9-3 victory on a sunny afternoon at PNC Park.

A crowd of 38,525, largest ever to see the Brewers there, watched as Garza fought for six innings without his best stuff. He allowed six hits, three runs (earned) and five walks and departed with a 4-3 lead.

Rob Wooten held the Pirates scoreless in the seventh, and Milwaukee sent eight batters to the plate in the eighth, scoring four times against Pittsburgh relievers Justin Wilson and Jeanmar Gomez to put the game out of reach.

"I think just us answering back (was important)," said Garza, who evened his record at 4-4. "We really don't pay attention to how many runs we lose by; it's still a loss. We just come back and answer back and try to get that 'W' again."

Garza got an early lead with which to work courtesy of three Pirates errors in the first.

Jean Segura led off with a grounder to shortstop that Jordy Mercer bobbled, allowing him to reach. First baseman Ike Davis committed a pair of errors on a pickoff attempt by Edinson Volquez, and Segura scampered to third before Jonathan Lucroy drove him in with a sacrifice fly to left.

Milwaukee kept that 1-0 advantage until the third.

Neil Walker and Andrew McCutchen singled with one out, and after Russell Martin drew a two-out walk to load the bases, Pedro Alvarez followed with a broken-bat, bloop single to right that put the Pirates in front, 2-1.

The Brewers battled back into the lead the next inning, thanks to a big hit by Lyle Overbay.

Lucroy started things off with a single, and with one out Aramis Ramirez was hit in the right hand by Volquez's pitch. Khris Davis smacked a ground-rule double to left to score Lucroy and bring up Scooter Gennett, whom Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle elected to intentionally walk to load the bases for Overbay.

Overbay responded by serving a single to center on the first pitch he saw from Volquez to score Ramirez and Davis and put Milwaukee back in front, 4-2.

"Curveball," Overbay said. "He threw a couple fastballs my first at-bat and he had been throwing a lot of curveballs and changeups with runners in scoring position. I was thinking if he threw a fastball it was going to be down and away and I was going to hit into a 6-4-3 double play.

"I wanted to get something up in the zone, and I did."

Milwaukee threatened by putting two runners on in the sixth but couldn't cash in.

In the bottom of the frame Garza opened by walking Alvarez, who quickly moved to third when Ramirez threw away a bunt attempt by Jose Tabata. Mercer followed by grounding into a 6-4-3 double play, with the Brewers conceding the run.